For Discussion: The "Best" Beatles Song Ever

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(Mandatory soundtrack to this blog post...)

Briefly taking its own advice, and leaving the presidential sitzkrieg alone for a moment, the blog was cruising the musical precincts of the Intertoobz. It seems that it was 50 years ago this year that Decca Records, in all their brilliance, determined that "guitar bands" were on the way out, and declined to offer a deal to a young outfit from Liverpool. (To its credit, Decca later walked this back and did sign The Who, which it then proceeded to treat abominably.) This has been reckoned to be some sort of an anniversary, so USA TODAY decided to start a whole bunch of arguments.

The entire exercise is futile, of course, so there's not much point in my mentioning how little "Here Comes The Sun" or (Holy Crap!) "Fool On The Hill" belong on this list. The blog's First Law Of Music Criticism goes as follows: Except For "Revolution No. 9," there is no incorrect answer to the question, "What Is Your Favorite Beatles Song?" (My good friend, quintessential American sportswriter Bob Ryan, checks in with "Things We Said Today," which is an intriguing choice. A lot of people have a jones for the chunky acoustic side of the Fabs.) So start the hooley in comments, if you want. Here are my top three:

1) "Paperback Writer": Sir Paul gets positively Entwistlish on the bass here, and the lyrics are as sharp as anything Ray Davies wrote.

2) "A Day In The Life": I keep trying to bump this, but the pure goddamn audacity of it — and in 1967! — is damned near punk.

3) "Money (That's What I Want)": Absolutely torches Barrett Strong's original, and is the cut with which people ought to memorialize John Lennon, instead of the godawful "Imagine." (Let us never forget that one of the strengths of the Beatles is that they had two of the ballsiest white rock and roll voices ever.) The best indication I know of what a kickass bar band they must have been in Hamburg.